Feast Meets West is a celebration of Asian culture through the lens of food. We are a platform for socializing the diversity of the Asian experience, sharing the history of iconic dishes to the underrepresented foods, and amplifying the voices of the passionate people in the world of Asian food.

Categories

Jul 12 The Spirit of Japanese Whisky

Boy, do we have a good episode for you this week. Over the past several years, Japanese whisky has been experiencing so much international recognition to the point that there is currently a scarcity problem. Lynda and Iris decided to unpack its history, the story of its rise in popularity and the future of this trendy beverage. You also get to listen to Lynda and Iris get drunk on air, forget how to pronounce words, and butcher a whole lot of Japanese names.

“It’s not about Japanese whisky being better—it’s about Japanese whisky being limited in its availability and then the average quality being very high.” – Elliot Faber, Beverage Director of Yardbird.

We start off the episode introducing what we’re drinking while we record. Lynda opts for Michter's Small Batch Bourbon, while Iris does a tasting of Yoichi NAS (No Age Statement, at 11am). We also discuss whether or not that makes one a degenerate.

Scotch, rye, bourbon…what do all these terms mean? Lynda breaks down all the different main types of whisky in the world so that we're all on the same page. Iris then briefly describes the history of Japanese whisky production. We then get into how it’s consumed in Japan and how it got so popular both domestically and internationally.

“There's a huge movement in the US towards craft and heritage. You can make fun of all those terms all you like but what it just means is that there is more of a consideration towards what we’re consuming and the effort that went into it. Everyone’s general awareness around what they’ve been consuming and how it’s made has made everyone also veer towards maybe less industrial-focused products and more to things that have a little bit more character.” – Rachel Kim, cocktails and spirits consultant.

We also talk about TV and films’ effect on whisky consumption, especially Mad Men, Lost in Translation and Japanese TV drama Massan, a show about Japanese whisky industry founder Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Rita.

New to Japanese whisky and don’t know where to start? Tune in to find out Lynda and Elliot’s guides for beginners and which bottles to look out for if you want to get into it!

Finally, Feast Meets West is a brand new podcast and to help people find us, we need your help. Please log on to the iTunes store, search “Feast Meets West” under podcasts and leave a review. We would also love to hear from you! Hit us up on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.